Albanese called to reconsider trip as Beijing ‘reaches into our democracy’

Anthony Albanese’s push to stabilise relations with China is facing its biggest test yet as calls grow for the prime minister to withdraw from a planned trip to Beijing this year unless China removes bounties on Hong Kong activists living in Australia.

China has continued to escalate its rhetoric on the political exiles, with Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee urging pro-democracy activists to “give themselves up as soon as possible”, while Beijing’s Foreign Ministry called for Australia to “stop providing a safe haven for fugitives”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who met last October in Bali, are scheduled to meet in Beijing this year.Credit: James Brickwood

The bounty saga has also led to renewed pressure on Australia’s top legal representatives remaining in Hong Kong – including three former High Court justices – to resign from its court of appeal.

Hong Kong has offered $HK$1 million ($192,000) bounties for information leading to the arrest of eight pro-democracy activists including Australian citizen Kevin Yam and Ted Hui, a former Hong Kong legislator who now lives in Adelaide.

Asked whether Albanese should still travel to Beijing this year, Hui said: “I and many Hong Kongers will be worried that Australia is softening its attitude towards Beijing if he goes.

“We would have questions and wonder if human rights concerns have become less important.”

Ted Hui, a former Hong Kong pro- democracy legislator, is now in exile in Australia.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

The opposition’s acting foreign affairs spokesman, James Paterson, said China had committed an “extraordinary overreach” by issuing the bounties.

He said he was concerned by the prospect of Albanese “smiling and shaking hands” with Chinese President Xi Jinping as if nothing had happened.

Two Australians, journalist Cheng Lei and writer Yang Hengjun, remain behind bars in Beijing on vague national security charges.

“The Chinese government should withdraw the bounties before he [Albanese] goes,” said Paterson, who is regarded as one of the strongest China hawks in parliament. “Kevin Yam is an Australian citizen engaging in political debate in Australia and now he has a bounty on his head.

“They are reaching into our democracy to try to shut down someone who is writing op-eds against the Communist Party of China.”

Yam, a Melbourne-based lawyer who previously lived in Hong Kong, said: “I don’t see any reason why Albanese shouldn’t go to Beijing as long as he stands firm and doesn’t give ground on fundamental red lines on human rights. If we only spoke with people we like we would never get anything done.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning railed against Yam by name at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday night in which she warned Beijing would “brook no meddling by any external forces”.

“Kevin Yam and the others have long been engaging in anti-China activities aimed at destabilising Hong Kong,” she said.

“After fleeing overseas, they have acted in an even more outrageous way to create trouble and continued to instigate the division of the country and subversion of state power, acting as pawns for external anti-China forces in their effort to interfere in Hong Kong affairs.”

Albanese said on Wednesday the government was concerned about the bounties, describing them as “just unacceptable”.

“We will continue to co-operate with China where we can, but we will disagree where we must,” he told Channel Nine. “And we do disagree over human rights issues.”

Albanese confirmed last month he had been invited to Beijing and said he would “finalise the date at an appropriate time”.

A spokesman for the prime minister declined to comment on Wednesday when asked whether he still planned to make the trip.

The trip has long been expected to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s first visit to China as prime minister in October 1973.

Richard Maude, policy director at Asia Society Australia, said: “Clearly the timing needs to be right for Australia and the timing is not right now for a number of reasons.

“A visit needs to be seen in the context of a relationship that, even if it has recently become more stable, will be riven by deep divisions and be severely limited in scope to find common ground.”

Maude said that if Albanese travels to Beijing it will be important to stand up for Australia’s core national interests, including human rights, and avoid the perception he is being co-opted into Beijing’s preferred narratives.

James Laurenceson, director of the University of Technology’s Australia-China Relations Institute, said: “I don’t see any reason why Albanese wouldn’t go to Beijing.

“The weight of commonsense still points to going and pressing the case face-to-face for Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun to be released.”

Even as other judges have resigned from Hong Kong’s Final Court of Appeal following the passage of strict national security laws, former High Court justices Robert French, Murray Gleeson and William Gummow have remained on the court.

“At this stage, I will not be making any public comment,” French said on Wednesday.

Pro-democracy activists in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia say Commonwealth judges who remain on the court are ruining their reputation after Beijing’s attacks on the independence of the judiciary, media and elections left Hong Kong without a functioning civil society or opposition.

On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive John Lee said the only way for the activists to “end their destiny of being an abscondee who will be pursued for life is to surrender”.

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